Letter to Total Kenya, KenolKobil, and National Oil Kenya

I’ve purposely directed this to you three because you are arguably the leading distributors of cooking gas in our beloved country. I firmly believe you are aware of what I am about to pen down, but I’ll still proceed.

There is something terribly wrong that has been happening and keeps going on, mostly within Nairobi and its suburbs. Unscrupulous gas vendors are on an astonishing accelerating trajectory. It’s become a booming business for starters in the populated East land and the Nairobi slums. A vendor collects empty cylinders from whichever company he comes across,refills them from backdoor go-downs not owned by any of you three and sells them at a profit. I know you are losing millions if not billions to these unlicensed re-fillers, but that is not what itches me most. There is currently a serious safety issue.

Most of the cylinders being refilled are currently in a precarious state. I’ve observed that the black rubber tubing at the nozzle of the cylinders in most of these cylinders are worn out. Failure to insert your burner or tube with caution results in a gas leakage which may lead to an explosion. I believe if you were refilling these cylinders, these tubes would be inspected and replaced periodically. But since most of the cylinders are not going through your hands, nothing is being done. May I also mention that the re-fillers and the selling agents are partners who risk not only our lives but also scheme to fleece us our hard-earned coins. They agree to refill the cylinders halfway and use tampered and uncalibrated weighing balances to dupe consumers into believing that their gas is of the required weights. After all, no one audits their balances. No one checks their calibration status.

Total Kenya, KenolKobil, and National Oil Kenya, I know it’s none of your faults, but kindly come to the rescue of your consumers. You’ll not only increase your sales volume and save our coins, but also a life of that mother who might be consumed by flames of gas due to poorly maintained cylinders.